DILI, 29 january 2022 (TATOLI) -The government of Australia and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) delivered 259.740 doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine to the Government of Timor-Leste today.
The TRI. M. G Asia Airline carrying the vaccines arrived at Nicolau Lobato International Airport at around 10:30 a.m. local time.
The vaccine doses are part of a total of 1.260.090 doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccines that UNICEF will deliver in partnership with the Government of Australia.
The Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines will help vaccinate children between 12 and under 18 years of age and be utilized for the booster doses for adults above 18 years of age.
From day one of the Covid-19 pandemic, both UNICEF and Australia have played a critical role in supporting the Government of Timor-Leste and the Ministry of Health (MoH) in the Covid-19 response as well as the deployment and roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine. UNICEF contributes to six pillars of the response and has a co-leadership role in some sub-committees of the National Deployment and Vaccination Plan (NDVP), providing financial, technical, and logistical resources and support.
In addition to these over 1.2 million doses, the Government of Australia has so far provided over 777.850 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Timor-Leste. In addition, the Government of Australia has provided over AUD$ 3.5 million to health partners, including UNICEF and WHO in support of the vaccine rollout.
“The government of Australia is a major partner and close friend of the people and government of Timor-Leste, and this contribution is a part of our pledge to help protect people in this country from Covid-19,” said Suzanne Wilson-Uilelea, the Charge d’Affaires of the Australian during the handover ceremony at the Nicolau Lobato Airport, in Dili, on Saturday.
At the same place, Bilal Aurang Zeb Durrani, the Representative of UNICEF in Timor-Leste said: “Beyond the delivery itself, is the significance of getting us closer to reaching the government’s goal of vaccinating all of the eligible population against Covid-19 and protecting individuals, their families, and communities – and contributing to making the world safer from this dreaded disease.”
Durrani said in partnership with the Government of Australia, UNICEF has supported the procurement of the vaccines, strengthened the cold chain system capacity, enhanced the community awareness program for vaccine uptake, supported vaccine distribution up to the vaccination points, and established Covid-19 vaccine-related waste management.
“UNICEF continues to provide technical, logistic and financial support that range from vaccine management, strengthening cold chain capacity at the national and sub-national level, roll-out COVID-19 vaccination campaign to above 12 years of age with Pfizer vaccine and above 18 years with AstraZeneca vaccines, advocacy, and community mobilization and revitalizing primary health care services to scale up delivery of quality essential health services for every Timorese child, youth and mother,” he said.
Timor-Leste has received 1.4 million doses of vaccines to date through the COVAX Facility and bilateral donations. And out of 1.4 million, Timor-Leste has administered 1.24 million doses to target beneficiaries reaching 84.1% of the target population with the first dose and 70.7% of the target population with the second dose.
On behalf of the Government of Timor-Leste, the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (MNEK), Julião da Silva thanked the government of Australia and UNICEF for putting efforts to deliver the vaccines to Timor-Leste.
“I am delighted to be here this morning, on behalf of the government of Timor-Leste to receive the 259.740 doses of the Pfizer vaccines, donated by the Government of Australia, which was procured by UNICEF,” said Silva.
“We are grateful to the people of Australia and UNICEF for their generosity to continue supporting Timor-Leste. Your contribution will help to save the lives of many Timorese children and the people of Timor-Leste. I believe the relationship between Timor-Leste and Australia would be strengthened through such generous support.”
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Rafy Belo
